IRCTC Shares Trade Higher On Securing Approval From Railway Board For 7-Year Tenders

The share price of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) traded in the green on Tuesday, a day after the company informed that the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) has permitted IRCTC to go for long-term tenders for a period of 7 years. IRCTC shares were up 1.23% at Rs 709.80 per share at 3:13 pm IST.

In an exchange filing on Monday, the company said," It is informed that Railway Board vide Commercial Circular No. 24 of 2023 has now issued an addendum to the Para 1 and Para 3 of Catering Policy 2017, wherein, Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) has permitted IRCTC to go for long term tenders for the period of 7 years (5+2 years subject to satisfactory performance on completion of initial 5 years' term), through clustering of trains."

Earlier, the company was advised by the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) not to go ahead with the proposed long-term tenders (5+5 years) for catering on trains, for smooth implementation of YSA policy for providing passenger services on trains.

IRCTC is the state-run firm authorised by the Indian Railways to manage food services onboard trains and offer online railway ticket booking services.

Meanwhile, in a separate filing on Monday, the company said that the Rail Neer plant on the PPP model at Bhubaneswar (Orissa) has commenced commercial production w.e.f. 17-11-2023 (received on 20-11-2023). The production capacity of this plant is 72,000 liters per day.

The distribution of Rail Neer manufactured at Rail Neer Plant Bhubaneswar is likely to start in a phased manner to Railway Stations at Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road, Cuttack, Puri, Berhampur, Balasore, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Kharagpur etc. IRCTC said that with the commencement of the plant at Bhubaneswar, the total production capacity of Rail Neer has increased to 16.96 lakh litres per day.

In this year so far, IRCTC shares have gained 10.54%.